Something I remembered…
Well, I may have joined the Jedi group at the end of May, but that doesn’t mean that the work I did before then doesn’t count, especially when I’m not actually done with it. What I’m referring to in this case is the work I am doing with the Earth Spiritualists of Chicago (ESC) to create a Pagan Sunday School. We had, on 17 May 2009, a meeting of half a dozen members of the group where we dicussed what could be done to set up the curriculum and organization of a Pagan Sunday School. Initially, we would start with classes every month on the second Sunday before slowly working up towards twice a month, and then to every Sunday.
The topics covered during this meeting started off with the setting of goals for forming the school. These included the age ranges that we work with in the school, how and what we teach the kids, the importance of interpersonal communication and activities, and where we can go to help facilitate the various lessons that we want to teach. From there, we broke it down into smaller topics, such as the fact that while we are a NeoPagan organization and school, we will still focus our energies towards teaching respect for and fellowship with other religious groups and organizations, as well as non-religious practices, such as Yoga, meditation, Tai Chi, and other energetic practices that can be supplemented into the program so that were not bringing in just religious ideals. From there, we figured that the age brackets should be: Birth-2, 3-6, 7-10, 11-13, and 14-18, and from there, the 18+ members would be initiated into the ESC as formal members.
Even though the formal initiation isn’t until the members are 18, the Sabbat and Esbat festivals are still planned to have aspects that are geared towards the kids, as well as the adults. However, the festivals and the initiation are not the only means by which the children will be able to experience NeoPaganism, as we are also looking into coming up with modern coming-of-age ceremonies. Also, we will be planning various trips out to nature preserves and other wildlife areas in order to teach respect for the natural world, as well as how to work with nature during magickal rituals and such.
Another concern for the school is funding, but we’ve talked about using charity type benefits, such as bake sales, and arts/crafts fairs, as well as charging a nominal fee for the classes, either to be payed with money or paid off with services for the school, such as cleaning or teaching. Classes should run about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, and will alternate between periods of individual time and group play.
One of the most interesting things we discussed was the idea of a non-physical attendance where the students, during the opening circle, choose a rock, twig, or other natural physical representation for themselves, a piece of nature that “resonates” with their own energy, placed on the altar in the center of the main room to say to the cosmos, “I’m here”. Additionally, at the end of class, the students remove these representations, simillar to post-ritual grounding of energy and the dismissal of any spiritual or divine forces called to aid the ritual.
The other thing that I have participated in was a 12-hour workshop on various spiritual practices that connected into the “Solar Fire, Surging Waters” Summer Soltice/Esbat ritual planned for that night. Over the course of about an hour, the story was told of Isis’ journey to find the missing parts of her murdered husband, Osiris, and how she had called upon Ra to give her the strength to find him and restore him to life. Within this story, we were told that the power for change and the strength we need to survive, the “light of Ra”, is within us all, and that we just need to be able to look. As one group, the 50 or so of us danced and chanted, calling upon the power of the Divine to awaken the power within us. We asked for the blessings of the Sun, reflected in the lunar light, and the blessings of the waters of Earth, including the blood within us, to flow with the energy we need to begin another cycle of change.
I am not sure when there is another major ritual set up for the ESC, but there is another planned administrative meeting regarding the Sunday school some time in the middle of September.
Until then,
May the Force be with you,
Padawan Tiphereth
